Lady Hawks - By CJ 

The Lady Hawks have experienced some success the past fortnight with two hard fought wins and have been training hard and preparing for our encounter with top of the table Wolfpack. Our emphasis is on becoming a better ball team that all teams know will be in for a battle in order to beat.
 
The team has displayed a new level of confidence and we’re starting to realise that we have all the components to be a very dangerous side. The coaching staff has made a considerable effort, working with the individual skills of players to help ensure they will make contributions towards the teams success.
 
This weekend we’re up against the league leaders Wanneroo Wolfpack, who have had a great start to the season under the leadership of Coach Vlad Alava. Their roster features veteran players with many games of experience in both the State and National leagues.
 
This game will provide an early season challenge to see how good our team can actually be. I’m very confident that we are capable of being a top four team. This is a challenge we’ve been preparing for and we’ll be working hard to get another win to send a strong message to the league that we’re a force to contend with. 

Thank you to all of our supporters and volunteers for your support and cheers in last weeks win against the Cockburn Cougars.

Shawn Dennis - Men's Head Coach

With five games under our belt, I’d like to reflect on our progression to date. From where we started to where we are now, this team has worked so hard to get such a terrific start to the season.
 
From the very first training season we have stressed hard work and defence. It always takes a while to put your systems in as a coach but you know that it’s easier to get the defence right first. 

Our first aim was to establish a culture of full-court defence and hard work at every training. The team needed to improve their fitness levels and this can only be done by the effort put in at practice and particularly training on the full court. I often wander around the stadium and I see too much training being done on the half court. We like to drill our players as much as possible using the full court and in particularly having the team go from offence to defence and vice versa. This helps simulate a better game-like scenario as well as improving fitness.
 
To be 5 and 0 at this stage of the season has far exceeded my expectations. I was hopeful to be 3 and 2 at best, but to be sitting where we are is a real bonus. Full credit has to go to the team for their hard work and their ‘buy in’ of what we are trying to do. To hold the free scoring Cockburn Cougars to 13 points in the third quarter last weekend shows that we are improving all of the time.
 
Another big message I’ve been trying to convey is the fact that you should never look at the scoreboard but instead focus on the processes that are needed to win on the scoreboard. It is too easy sometimes to think you have played well because the scoreboard says so. We encountered this playing the Flames, where we sped to an early lead and were up by 35 in the second quarter. Unfortunately the team looked at the scoreboard and stopped focusing on the processes we are trying to put in place.
 
We played Rockingham even for the rest of the game. It is tough to keep playing at a high level when you establish such an early lead but if we are to be contenders, we must remember that it’s imperative to stay focused. The team certainly learnt very quickly that even though we beat Rockingham by 35 I was not a happy coach. We did not achieve a couple of our game goals and we should not be happy with our performance. I think this lesson was learnt and we went into the Cockburn game as an improved team.
 
This week we face Wanneroo on Saturday night. This will be a very good test for us as they have put together a very good team and in big man Damian Matacz, they have the reigning MVP. Wanneroo have a good mixture of outstanding post players as well as players that can knock down the three point shot. It will be a tremendous challenge for our defence to make sure we limit the post touches while also disrupting their perimeter players.
 
One area we want to improve in both defensive and offensive transtion. Our ‘D Trans’ is improving each week and the Wolfpack certainly have the team to test it. We have speed in the team and I don’t think we have fully utilized our offensive transition yet. It’s an area we’re working hard at and hopefully we’ll see some easy transition baskets. If we can show continued improvement in these areas then it will go a long way in us getting the processes right. When we get the processes right we will be a hard team to beat on the scoreboard.

With energy,
SD